The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transporting such objects as electrodes, namely what are referred to as anodes and cathodes, which are mounted on stock apparatuses.
Up to now, for example, in a metallic salt electrolysis operation, in order to facilitate the operation of those mechanical devices which are provided to load and unload electrodes into and from the electrolysis bath, stock conveyors have been utilized which are designed to arrange and stock a suitable number of electrodes in the neighborhood of said mechanical devices. However, in order to perform the operations smoothly, a substantial number of electrodes has to be stocked on hand, requiring huge stock conveyors. Such huge stock conveyors carrying many electrodes are disadvantageous not only because the great loads require strong conveyor construction and driving power, but also because of the hugeness, their operating expense becomes great.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to eliminate these disadvantages of conventional designs by arranging several stock conveyors in such a manner that they are linked by an automatically travelling transfer apparatus provided among them, so that with a very simplified stock conveyor design and with relatively small driving power, not only said electrodes, but also similar objects can be efficiently and correctly arranged, stocked and transported.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a transporting apparatus of such a design that comprises a first stock apparatus, a second stock apparatus, and a transfer apparatus disposed between said first and second stock apparatuses, said transfer apparatus so connecting said two stock apparatuses that as soon as the presence of an object on the first stock apparatus is detected, said transfer apparatus lifts it up and transports it to a position above the second stock apparatus, and only when the presence of a space on the second stock apparatus is detected, said transfer apparatus then transfers its load object such as an electrode to the second stock apparatus, thereby even if the first and second stock apparatus have different speeds, a smooth transporting of objects is achieved without such undesirable situations developing as one stock apparatus being fully loaded while the other stock apparatus being empty, and therefore when this transporting apparatus is utilized in transporting electrodes to be supplied to an electrolytic cell, said apparatus can be freely adapted to any automatically operating electrode supplying devices to cause a substantial reduction of the operating expenses.
The present invention will be explained more particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings.